Recently, I was given the opportunity to interview a tremendous woman from the Civil Rights movement. Tuskegee University Professor Marilyn P. Hoytt is a female figure who played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement and teachings. She is a strong black woman and a French teacher like no other. Many students and others do not know her story, but I was granted an opportunity for her to share her story with me.
Opening question: How did you get involved in the civil rights movement?
Mme Hoytt: My parents were not activists but were black oriented and taught me to take pride in my heritage.
Madame Hoytt grew up during the time of the voting rights case of Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Her mother was an assistant administrator to Gomillion. The case formed the legal background to the voting rights act.
Me: In your opinion, what was one of the biggest problems during those times?
Madame Hoytt referred to the Montgomery, Alabama train shed, where she said “segregation” was the biggest problem. There was a “White People Only” train shed that was nice and neat. There was a crowded, jam-packed train shed for black people.
Mme Hoytt: Who do you think were buying the most train tickets during those times?
Me: Black people?
Mme Hoytt: Correct.
To her, it was a humiliating experience, especially coming from Tuskegee, where they were middle class citizens. She said there were colored fountains too dirty to drink out of. Another problem was that students at Spelman and Morehouse who studied abroad were given a totally free existence overseas as opposed to the segregation back home.
These students organized sit-ins in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1961, thousands of students were arrested, including her. They spent four days and three nights in jail with Martin Luther King Jr. A key question she said was asked back then would be “Why?” She would respond, “The only way to create change is to accept that we’re inferior.”
Me: How did working Martin Luther King Jr., the sit ins, and jail time impact your life?
Mme Hoytt: The letter that he wrote to the girls.
He said that he had been arrested with men going to jail, but he never had female students who were willing to sacrifice their academics for change.
Madame Hoytt eventually left for Paris, France.
Mme Hoytt: Once you let someone out of a cage, they don’t really want to go back into it.
Me: What role did French culture play in your life?
She learned French at Tuskegee Institute High School. Her teachers were people of color speaking French, which encouraged her to learn it and teach it to others.
Mme Hoytt: Going to Paris was a liberating experience form me.
She told me that she felt totally free and had a very wonderful experience. Also, she learned that French culture came from many generations of her family and that she is on a “heritage journey.”Madame Hoytt’s picture on that night was of her being arrested with Martin Luther King Jr. It hangs in the federal building in Atlanta Georgia, where it stands 30 feet tall. She left me with a question to think about, something we should all think about.
She asked, "Why were there so many young activists?"
